John Moore | Arts & Entertainment | denvergazette.com: No one wants to say it, believe it or deal with it … but it’s not over.
Not only is COVID still ripping its way through the local performing arts community with renewed vigor, but this winter we have the tripledemic: COVID, the flu and RSV, otherwise known as Respiratory Syncytial Virus. And, according to the Colorado Department of Public Health, they are all on the rise.
3 comments:
As someone who both personal and professional has been a victim of long covid and covid related consequences the way that theater companies continue to handle covid and think of the ongoing pandemic as a complete afterthought is beyond me. In spring 2022 I stage managed a show choir whose cabaret almost had to be canceled because of a covid surge and later that spring a local performance of Singing in the Rain was canceled due to lack of covid planning. Both of these alternatives are better then what many shows have done, which is to say the hell with the show must go on and create a new covid epicenter without warning audience members of the situation. What personally is infuriating to me is production companies especially at the community level getting rid of the Covid Safety Manager and Understudies as in many peoples mind the pandemic is over putting everyone at risk.
Theo
This is an important read. Covid is not over but unfortunately is over being cared about in the US. I understand the motivation behind keeping theatres working and ignoring covid but it is truly bad for the community to keep ignoring it. Theatres need to employ understudies and swings for everyrole on stage and behind the stage to cover for people who need to call out sick and those people should not be punished for protecting the community and taking care of their health. This aricle is the first mention of a show being produced about covid. I wonder how many new works will be coming out in the next few years about covid and its affects on family, life, and the community around us. The pandemic is far from over, I hope people can remember that and support one another instead of place blame and hate across it. Be careful this season and get vaccinated if you arent.
It certainly does feel often as though no one cares about COVID anymore and no one truly sees it as the huge threat it still is. Masks are no longer required anywhere anymore and even our own CDC says that we only need to quarantine for five mere days when we get a positive test and then we just get to go back to work or school even if our test is still positive. Theatres seem to often follow AEA’s guidelines on most things, but this is no longer the case when it comes to COVID and smaller theatres who may not have the funds to produce shows with all of the additional needed staff to be fully safe from COVID are letting these positions lapse. I also have seen COVID compliance officers being offered unlivable wages and that certainly would make people not want to do said job because they won’t be making enough money to support themselves. You would think that companies would rather put on safe shows with enough people hired to prevent illness, but that does not seem to be the case.
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